AU728122B2 - Improvements in roof structures - Google Patents

Description

1

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 NETPRO PTY LIMITED

ORIGINAL

COMPLETE SPECIFICATION STANDARD PATENT Invention Title: Improvements in roof structures The following statement is a full description of this invention including the best method of performing it known to us:- The present invention relates to roof structures and more particularly to roof structures as typically employed in the covering of crops and commercial goods to provide shade and/or hail protection for those crops or goods.

In agricultural and horticultural ventures it is common practice to erect structures to support a covering of netting, shadecloth or the like material to protect crops from excessive sun or against hail damage or attack from birds or bats. On relatively large installations this protection can cover an area of up to, for example, 50 acres. Because of the extent of these structures their cost of installation bears strongly on the viability of the agricultural or horticultural venture. The least expensive arrangements employ a flat roof structure requiring a multiplicity of columnar supports in regular arrays throughout the area of the structure. Such flat roof structures are not particularly effective in preventing hail damage as masses of hail stones tend to clump between supports and cause the covering to sag and tear thus rendering the cover ineffective against subsequent hail storms before the material can be replaced.

Another version of this form of structure employs a plurality of parallel pitched rooves with the ridge caps aligned above the plant rows to be 20 protected and with the valleys between adjacent peaks providing a catchment for hail to collect and fall to the ground without damaging the line of crops or trees beneath each ridge line.

A pitched roof structure is preferable to a flat roof arrangement but its capital cost is significantly higher thus causing the horticulturalist or agriculturalist or any other party employing such a structure, to gamble on the choice between flat and pitched roof arrangements. The liability of insurers must also be of concern where, say, a flat roof structure is subjected to hail damage and before it can be repaired another hail storm occurs which significantly damages the underlying crop or goods.

30 Throughout this specification, unless the context requires otherwise, the word "comprise", or variations such as "comprises" or "comprising", will be understood to imply the inclusion of a stated element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps, but not the exclusion of any other element, integer or step, or group of elements, integers or steps.

I It 3 The present invention in one aspect proposes a roof structure for supporting flexible roofing material over a predetermined area, said roofing structure comprising a plurality of uprights or columns at regularly spaced intervals around the perimeter of a rectangular area to be covered, spacings between uprights along front and rear elevations of the area to be covered being such as to provide a ridge line from front to rear between correspondingly aligned uprights, each of the side perimeters comprising a plurality of uprights forming parallel row alignments transverse to the parallel rows of the front to rear upright alignments, the spacing between adjacent side perimeter uprights being greater than the spacing between adjacent uprights along the front and rear perimeters, each of the transverse pairings of perimeter uprights being adapted to support therebetween a flexible elongate element or cable member held by guy ropes or cables or similar at each lateral end of the structure, positioned on each elongate element or cable member there are downwardly projecting spacer members at locations intermediate the alignments between pairs of front and rear i* uprights of the structure, the spacer members acting to downwardly displace a flexible roofing material fitted over the structure such that the downwardly displaced portion of the flexible material forms a valley in the flexible 20 material between adjacent peaks or ridge lines in that material which correspond to front to rear aligned uprights of the structure.

By means of the present invention it is possible to form a pitched roof layout of the existing form but without the need for a large number of columnar uprights within the area being covered as is required in conventional pitched roof layouts.

The present invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:- Fig 1 is a an isometric view of a portion of a prior art layout for a conventional pitched roofed structure; S" 30 Fig 2 is an isometric view of an arrangement of a pitched roof structure formed in accord with one embodiment of the present invention; Fig 3 is a front or rear elevation view of the embodiment of Fig 2; Fig 4 is a side elevation of the embodiment of Fig 2: Fig 5 is a plan view of the embodiment of Fig 2; Fig 6 is an isometric view showing the layout of an embodiment of the present invention covering a substantial area as typically employed in agriculture or horticulture.

Fig 1 shows a roofing structure 10 with a plurality of poles 11 evenly spaced apart across the front or rear face of the structure while its side perimeters are bounded by the columns or uprights 12, again evenly spaced apart, but at a greater spacing than the uprights 11 on the front or rear face.Each row of to each of the rows of uprights 12, 12'.

There are front to rear alignments of pairs of front and rear face columns 11 and transverse alignments of each opposed pair of side face columns 12 and intermediate columns 12'. Again there are cables 14 along each front and rear row of uprights 11. In similar manner a cable 13 is fitted across each row of columns 12, 12' with guy ropes or cables 15 which, in conjunction with front to rear cable 16 stretching across the tops of columns 12' between front and rear aligned uprights 11, adds structural stability to the roof supporting structure Each front to rear aligned pair of front and rear uprights 11, in conjunction with a correspondingly aligned front to rear row of columns 12', corresponds to a peak or ridge cap for a flexible roofing material (omitted in S 20 the interests of clarity) which is laid across the top of the structure 10 fitting beneath cables 13 and 14 thereby providing ridges and valleys to the roofing structure, which ridges and valleys run from the front to the rear of the structure 10. Where a structure of that prior art form is placed over S agricultural crops, so that the crop rows are aligned with the front to rear rows of columns 11 and 12', then each of those rows is beneath a ridge line of S- the roofing structure so that the valleys of the roof are positioned between each row of crops. As is well understood by the addressee the crops covered by such a structure, where the roofing material is appropriately hail resistant, is able to shed hail falling on the structure to the valleys where the 30 accumulated hail falls to the ground between rows through openings formed in the material or the hail settles in those valleys and then melts, harmlessly irrigating the soil between the crop rows.

Fig 2 is a schematic representation of one embodiment in accord with the present invention and in this embodiment like parts are numbered in correspondence with those of the prior art embodiment of Fig 1. As can be seen the front or rear uprights 11 and the side perimeter uprights 12 are arranged as in the prior art embodiment, but instead of having the transverse rows of uprights 12' of Fig 1 between perimeter uprights 12, there are positioned an array of downwardly projecting rods or spacer members 17 on cables 13.

Rods 17 are coupled to respective cables 13 and function to position the roofing material to maintain the valley rows between the rows of roof peaks or ridges. This contrasts with the structural arrangement of Fig 1 where intermediate uprights 12' are aligned with the roof peaks and which in use interfere with the crop rows. An extended cable or stretched flexible member is fitted in the prior art embodiment of Fig 1 to maintain the valleys and a similar cable 18 is employed in the Fig 2 embodiment so that each rod 17 is coupled between a cable 13 and a cable 18.

The embodiment of Figs 2-6 readily show the elimination of intermediate uprights 12' which greatly reduces the cost of the roof structure, while its functionality as well as its structural integrity is preserved.

The layout of an entire structure in accord with the embodiment of Fig 6 shows the use of a minimal number of intermediate columns 12' Intermediate columns 12' may be required, depending upon the extent of the area covered by the roofing structure and its ability to sustain the roofing S* 20 loads without sagging under those loads and possibly damaging the underlying crops or goods.

Another use of roofing structures of the present invention, amongst many others, is for the storage of, say, large numbers of motor vehicles out in open as occurs at manufacturing sites and during transportation.

Typically, roofing structures of the present type are employed at wharf storage areas for holding motor vehicles transported by roll-on roll-off ships and vessels. In that situation the danger of damage to those vehicles by hailstones can be substantial while roofing structures of the present invention would allow vehicles to be easily located beneath due to the 30 absence of many intermediate columns or uprights 12' of prior art structures of the form of Fig 1.

It will be appreciated by persons skilled in the art that numerous variations and/or modifications may be made to the invention as shown in the specific embodiments without departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as broadly described. The present embodiments are, therefore, to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive.

Claims (4)

1. A roof structure for supporting flexible roofing material over a predetermined area, said roofing structure comprising a plurality of uprights or columns at regularly spaced intervals around the perimeter of a rectangular area to be covered, spacings between uprights along front and rear elevations of the area to be covered being such as to provide a ridge line from front to rear between correspondingly aligned uprights, each of the side perimeters comprising a plurality of uprights forming parallel row alignments transverse to the parallel rows of the front to rear upright alignments, the spacing between adjacent side perimeter uprights being greater than the spacing between adjacent uprights along the front and rear perimeters, each of the transverse pairings of perimeter uprights being adapted to support therebetween a flexible elongate element or cable member held by guy ropes or cables or similar at each lateral end of the structure, positioned on each elongate element or cable member there are downwardly projecting spacer members at locations intermediate the alignments between pairs of front and rear uprights of the structure, the spacer members acting to downwardly displace a flexible roofing material fitted over the structure such that the downwardly displaced portion of the flexible material forms a valley in the flexible material between adjacent peaks or ridge lines in that material which correspond to front to rear aligned uprights of the structure.

2. A roof structure as claimed in claim 1 wherein the flexible roofing material is selected from shadecloth, hail resistant netting and bird or bat resistant netting.

3. A roof structure as claimed in claim 1 or 2 wherein the spacer members are substantially rigid rods.

4. A roof substantially for supporting flexible roofing material substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs 2-6 of the S"accompanying drawings. S Dated this 11th day of August 1998 NETPRO PTY LIMITED Patent Attorneys for the Applicant: F B RICE CO